Buying a Home in the Fox Valley? Start Here.
Buying your first home in Illinois can feel like walking into a movie halfway through. Your First Illinois Home: An Attorney's Plain-English Guide from Pre-Approval to Closing is a free, 55-page guide that gives you the plot summary before the movie starts. It is written for first-time home buyers in Illinois.
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The Home Buying Process in Illinois, Step by Step
The guide walks through the Illinois home buying process in the order it happens: budget and pre-approval, choosing your team, making an offer on the standard Illinois contract, attorney review, inspection, appraisal, title work and closing. It explains who does what, which deadlines matter, and where first-time buyers most often get stuck.
What's Inside
- Introduction: How an Illinois Home Purchase Works
- Budgeting and Mortgage Pre-Approval
- Choosing a Loan: Conventional, FHA, VA, and USDA
- Choosing a Real Estate Agent, and the Attorney's Separate Role
- Before You Offer: Seller Disclosures and Condo Documents
- Making an Offer and Understanding the Contract
- Attorney Review
- The Home Inspection
- The Appraisal
- Title and Title Insurance
- Closing Costs, Including Illinois and Local Transfer Taxes
- Closing Day
- Illinois Programs: IHDA and Others
- Common Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them
- After Closing: Property Taxes and Exemptions
You also get:
- Glossary of plain-English real estate terms
- Checklist and timeline from pre-approval to closing
- Where to get help, plus the sources behind every figure
About the Author
Joseph S. Angelillo is an Illinois attorney and the founder of Angelillo Law in St. Charles. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Law and Justice from Concordia University of Chicago and a Juris Doctor from The John Marshall Law School, and he was admitted to the Illinois bar in 2016. From 2016 to 2019 he worked as an associate attorney for the Law Offices of Edmund P. Wanderling, handling real estate transactions and trial work. Today he advises buyers and sellers, including first-time homebuyers, from the signed contract to the closing table.
Learn more about residential real estate legal services in St. Charles, read about the attorney review period, or see the Kane and DuPage County towns we serve.
This guide is general information, not legal advice. Reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Laws, forms, taxes and programs change, and every purchase is different, so talk with an attorney about your situation.
Attorney Advertising. This page is for general informational purposes only and is not legal advice. Viewing it, downloading the guide or signing up does not create an attorney-client relationship. Please do not send confidential information until we have agreed in writing to represent you. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Laws and local requirements change; contact an attorney about your specific situation.